Not really something to just get done for the sake of beginning, but here is why i've started yet another blog.
I've actually really resisted having more than one blog - i prize transparency, and i'm pretty open about my life, including my spiritual life and struggles and all the good stuff...
But i do know that for some reason, listening to a Christian honestly talk about what it is to be a believer in Jesus in the 21st century is very distressing for a lot of church people, many of whom are my very good friends.
I want them to be able to go to my happy shiny homeschool blog :) or my paleo eating/exercise blog and not have to be confronted with my frustrated rants, which i am sad to inform you, are all too common, and will likely be a central feature of this blog.
Not that i am dissatisfied with Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the Church Universal, any huge theological problems - mostly i just chafe at how we do church now, in the 21st century, here, in the Western world.
I don't think it hurts to say "Look, not only is this not working for me, but it is hurting me - it is making me bleed, it is making me ashamed, it is taking all week to recover from the toxic "fellowship". What can i do to make it change? How can i fulfill my obligations to God, and still encourage and be encouraged by other believers?" Because i feel like maybe i am threatening to some believers, and an object of scorn to other believers, and i definitely do not feel encouraged by most believers (with some beautiful exceptions - and of course, most of my friends/family fall into the second circle of the venn diagram that is "believers that hurt/believers that heal"...
So that is what this is all about. If you feel crawly just reading this, consider yourself part of a tremendously huge majority and move on - if something inside you says "me too" .... then welcome - let's find where God wants us!
K...here I am... I didn't realize you had started this BLOG until Paige clued me in yesterday.... So Here I am to bleed with you if necessary. I was there too. Crying all the way home every Sunday.... Never would have exposed anyone on purpose and unnessarily to the "church service." So if I was to bear witness to the reality of Christ and to follow through on the great comission to "make disciples"....then...what to do with them?....certainly not TAKE THEM THERE!
ReplyDeleteOh, mom... here you are with me :)
ReplyDeleteso glad you are!
I think that's one of the biggest problems i have with the church - is it's mediator/stumbling block role when it comes to new believers. Not only are they to become a new creature, but i think that new life gets interrupted while they learn the church culture, and then, sometimes it never starts up again. Religion takes over and new life withers. Religion sure makes you feel good when you can hit all the marks, but it won't make you like Jesus. One of those cases where "good" is the enemy of "best" i think. and the saddest one i know.